"Common colors used for painting wooden buidlings" Topic

Greetings!

I was wondering what common colors were used to paint wooden building during the civil war? I know white was very common. Many buildings and fences were "white washed". I also know red was sometimes used. I have also read that a yellowish color was used. I am getting ready to do some painting of 28mm and 15mm buildings for this period. I would like to used colors that would have been used during the time of the American Revolution too since many of my buildings could then also be used for this period.

Remember that weathered unpainted wood can turn a mid to lighting grey colour
Bc1745

hi

A Dark Brown base, with a craft paint color called barn wood as a dry brush.

Most painted barns were red or white. Exceptions, particularly drab blues, did exist, but were rare enough to be something of note. Growing up in rural PA, a neighbor's 18th Century barn was called "The Blue Barn" by all the older locals. No one knew why, since it was all faded gray, but that's what their parents and grandparents called it. When we tore it down, we found remnants of pale blue paint.

You guys have just summarized nearly everything I know about early American building colors. Lead-based white and iron oxide "barn red" were the most common paint colors; natural wood turns grayer and grayer through successive seasons.

Lately I've been finding that Google Images searches for "colonial <town name>" and "old town <town name>" can turn up some awesome photos of reconstructed areas and digital images of period paintings, like this painting of colonial Boston:

- Ix

An article about whitewash type painting of buildings

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewash

Another article about barn colors, notice that the paint is homemade from milk.

link

Some ideas on historical colors for 300 plus years:

link

"Barn red" was a very common colour in revolutionary New England and New York – Arnold's fleet on Lake Champlain is supposed to have been painted this colour because it was so widely available.

Beware the (mis-)use of the term "Colonial" in the context of architecture and interior/exterior decorating. Unfortunately (for our purposes) there was a big influx of new painting styles, technology and pigments in the 1790s, so don't assume that anything from that decade was available in the 1770s. The picture of Boston is c.1800, by the way.

So was barn red that oxide red-brown? Like the Peyton Randolph house in CW, for instance?

link

I believe so, yes.

If you want a good idea, google Colonial Williamsburg to look at the wide variety of colors found on their buildings.

You tore down an eighteenth century barn???

FWIW, the 1862 Ordnance Manual (of which I have a copy) lists several colors suitable for buildings, along with the formulas for making them. These include whitewash, red wash, blue wash, green wash and yellow wash. Any of these would/could be found in anything more than a 1-horse town.

A great number of brick homes/buildings had either white or black shutters,doors, etc. Many (and I mean MANY!) US Army brick buildings had olive green painted sashes, doors, shutters, etc. You often found brick buildings with red or black facades under the eaves, too.

Don't fall for the old impression that Victorian America was a drab and dreary place. It wasn't so, by any means. Most of the reasonable sized villages and towns would have oil-based paints for homes, building trims, etc. The "washes" came into being as a means of having painted structures for low costs, as it was inexpensive to make, and could be reapplied year after year. It was much more common in smaller towns and villages, farms, etc, especially the further west you got from the East Coast areas.